Barclay Perkins in the late 18th century

There was one thing that always impressed visitors about the Barclay Perkins brewery - its sheer size. For more than a century, that made it one of the must-see sights in London.

"Dined with Mr. Shoemaker, Mr. Coxe, Mr. Phineas Bond, & Mr. Samson a Mercht., at Mr. Barclay's great Brewery in the Borough, which I examined. The Buildings contain near 5 Acres of Ground, Stables with 79 Horses, 2 Copper Boilers of 200 Barrels each brick'd up all round; Vats of 500 — 800 — 1000 & 4 of 1500 Barrels each. All full of Porter. This Brewery and 5 others make up Half of the Porter made in London; one of the 4 largest Vats costs 700 Guineas. They all stand upon Piles clear of the Ground about 4 Feet. They may be about 18 Feet high, of Oak hooped with Iron. He alone pays Excise weekly, in a Year near £40,000 exclusive of the Excize on Malt in the advanced Price of it. The Works are astonishing! so is the Quantity of Malt! The whole annual Market for Porter in the Port of London is about 1200,000 Barrels. 11 Twelfths is the Home Consumption, but 1/12th goes abroad. It will increase. Europe grows fond of Porter & especially Russia. I saw one Floor of 1000 Barrels in the last Fermentation, Yest running at the Bungs. Mr. Barclay assures me upon his Honor no Opium is used, nothing but Malt & Hops & Thames Water. It is an Error that this is the only Water fit for Porter.   Hopps are an opiate."
The diary and selected papers of Chief Justice William Smith, 1784-1793, Vol. I, edited by L.F.S. Upton, 1963-1965, page 220.

Hops aren't an opiate. They're not even an opioid. Weird that the author had to get Mr. Barclay to swear that his beer didn’t contain opium. I’m still to find any real evidence that beer was drugged with opium. Lots of rumours, but no evidence.

Was the total production of Porter 1.2 million barrels? Probably. The 8 biggest Porter brewers were churning out 800-odd thousand barrels in the 1790's:

Output of London's large Porter breweries 1784 - 1793
	1784	1785	1786	1787	1788	1789	1790	1791	1792	1793
Barclay Perkins	103,700	100,700	101,600	105,600	112,600	123,900	126,700	121,200	119,500	130,100
Whitbread	126,500	137,800	138,800	146,300	156,000	171,000	175,000	176,000	178,000	184,000
Truman, Hanbury	120,800	111,200	94,800	95,300	82,300	93,900	93,700	89,300	97,500	96,300
Sir W. Calvert Felix Calvert	93,800	100,700	75,200	91,600	81,800	80,500	57,800	81,400	69,400	71,400
John Calvert	117,700	134,800	117,200	131,000	127,000	141,600	144,000	131,300	125,100	108,000
Meux, Reid (Reid and Co)	57,500	57,300	45,700	49,700	48,200	53,300	48,700	68,500	78,500	88,500
Hammond-Gyfford-Shum-Combe -Delafield	108,800	101,400	87,600	90,900	100,100	95,300	100,200	100,700	106,200	101,500
Parsons-Goodwyn-Hoare	62,900	62,000	61,300	66,400	61,600	63,100	60,500	55,600	58,500	74,400
Total	791,700	805,900	722,200	776,800	769,600	822,600	806,600	824,000	832,700	854,200
Source:
“The Brewing Industry in England 1700-1830”, Peter Mathias, 1959, p 551-552

"Europe grows fond of Porter". What a wonderful phrase. But one I doubt that I'll ever be able to use.